Top 10 Peak Oil Books of 2011

Transition Voice website publishes reviews of "The best books on peak oil, climate disruption, economic crisis, and the ways to deal with each as a society and on a personal, family, or community level." We are delighted that this list of the Top 10 Peak Oil Books of 2011 posted on their site, December 12th, features four New Society authors.

"Lots of books came out on energy, climate and the economy this year. Here are the best ones that integrate all three areas.

Welcome to our second annual list of the top ten peak oil books. Most of them are explicitly about peak oil, while others deal with energy depletion as a significant factor in the economy or the environment. A couple titles focus on responses to the myriad conundrums that Richard Heinberg has dubbed “peak everything” and that are now converging to create a perfect storm for global industrial civilization.

Along with Heinberg, we list books by peak oil stalwarts John Michael Greer and Dmitry Orlov along with a few newcomers. Only one of the books this year is fiction, which we regret, since we think that peak oil writers have underused storytelling as a way to reach a wider audience by making complex and sometimes scary issues more accessible and less intimidating. We hope that next year, more novelists and short story writers will be inspired to take on peak oil. If nothing else, it would make a great premise for a variety of genres, from political thriller to science fiction to horror.

Heck, we won’t be satisfied until we’re at the checkout counter at Rite Aid and see peak oil as the background for a bodice-ripper romance. For now, there’s lots of good reading below. Enjoy.

John Wiley & Sons, 317 pp, hardcover, $27.95. More than a million people have watched Chris Martenson’s video series “The Crash Course” to prepare for financial collapse. The new book version is even better.

Beaver’s Pond Press, hardcover, 486 pp, $24.95. A political thriller that offers the perfect geopolitical storm for the age of peak oil: threat of war with China, a Saudi coup and economic collapse at home.

Chelsea Green Publishing, 320 pp, $29.95. Despite a heavy focus on the British Isles, the revised version of the beloved Transition Handbook still offers plenty for Americans and others who would re-localize their town’s economy.

New Society Publishers, 298 pp, $18.95. A thoroughly engaging and accessible revision of Adam Smith and classical economics that reminds us that wealth from either human labor or financial capital relies on resources that nature provides for free.

New Society Publishers, revised and updated 2011, 194 pp, $17.95. The latest edition of Dmitry Orlov’s doomer classic sees a Soviet-style collapse coming to the US. We won’t handle it as well as they did. But he finds hope if we can wake up.

New Society Publishers, 286 pp, hardcover, $17.95. Heinberg, co-founder of the Post Carbon Institute and author of numerous books on peak oil, now tackles the subject of economic growth. He argues our economy will need to learn to live without growth in the future and that this could be the best thing that ever happened to it.

Skyhorse Publishing, 304 pp, $16.95. Since most people in the industrial world live in cities, urban homesteading is an increasingly desirable strategy to build household resilience. But it can feel intimidating. What’s it all about? Dig in to this accessible book to find out.

In response to the request for more fiction novels that make "scary issues more accessible and less intimidating", my recommendation is the young adult novel, Restoring Harmony, by Gabriola's own Joelle Anthony.

What good books on sustainable living have you read this year? Let us know in the comments below.